Today's Opinions

We would like to extend a special thank you to our family and friends who assisted Leonard Romero in attending the Robertson High School Close Up trip to Washington, DC. Many of our family and friends contributed by donating to all of our fundraising efforts. A special thanks to Leonard’s sponsors who were our Local 4625 Fire Fighter’s Union, We Care Agency and Mr. Art Baca. We appreciate all of you.

It may have started off as a master’s thesis project, but the Parachute Factory makerspace that Las Vegas native Mariano Ulibarri launched in February is still going strong. And we, as a community, are better off because of it.

A makerspace is a do-it-yourself environment that brings people together to create, tinker and repair items. The makerspace movement has its foundation in Hacker Scouts, a national nonprofit that formed in Oakland, Calif., in 2012, to help kids build skills and creativity in science, technology, engineering, art and math.

A delayed Christmas present for our three grandchildren was the promise of a trip to a place called Hinkle’s Family Center in Albuquerque. Replete with bumper cars, bungee jumping, bumper boats, a racetrack and video games, Hinkle’s must have hosted all of the Duke City on Sunday.

The revelation last week that the U.S. government is collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of Americans and that it also secured a secret court order allowing the National Security Agency and FBI to tap directly into the servers of major U.S. internet companies, including Google and Facebook, is troubling.

President Obama and others defend the programs, calling them a necessary defense against terrorism. Privacy advocates are up in arms, arguing that the government shouldn’t be spying on its citizens without probable cause.